The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness I
by picklesmakemehappy101
Summary: In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T!
1. Chapter 1

**The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness**

**In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T!**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing and do not profit from anyone/anything you may recognise in this fic! This includes not only Austin and Ally but Michelle Pavers fabulous 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness.' This is simply to satisfy our Auslly obsessed minds!**

**Please also bare in mind that this is NOT my original work. This is the original copy of 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness,' only Torak and Renns characters have been converted to suit the characters: Austin and Ally. I will change the occasional scene to create more romance as the original focused more on the friendship and hinted romance much later on. I am a sucker for the Auslly romance so I'm afraid it had to be done. :D If you haven't read 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness' I'd recommend you do so as it is absolutely amazing. Seriously.**

**Before I continue onto the story I just want to reveal a bit on the historical background of this story. So, it's based after the Ice Age but before agriculture had spread to north-west Europe (think Norway) where this is based. So, civilisation is thought to have consisted of Tribes/Clans and they believed very similarly to Native Americans and Inuits. Their belief was that spirits existed in everything, the sun, forest, sea, trees, mountains, birds... you get the picture. With this in mind, the use of some words are maybe more traditional to the said time. I will place the word/term we are more familiar with in brackets alongside though. However there are very little and the vocabulary is relatively simple as the story's aimed at teenagers. The beginning may confuse you, as when I first read it, it confused me but give it a chance and if you are confused tell me and I'll explain the best I can. The stories view point consists of three different characters (Austin (originally Torak), Ally (originally Renn) and Wolf) and it will state which viewpoint it is alongside the chapter number.**

**Wolf Brother**

**Chapter 1: Austin**

Austin woke with a jolt from a sleep he'd never meant to have.

The fire had burned low. He crouched in the fragile shell of light and peered into the looming blackness of the Forest. He couldn't see anything. Couldn't hear anything. Had it come back? Was it out there now, watching him with its hot, murderous eyes?

He felt hollow and cold. He knew that he badly needed food, and that his arm hurt, and his eyes were scratchy with tiredness, but he couldn't really feel it. All night he'd guarded the wreck of the spruce bough shelter, and matched his father bleed. How could this be happening?

Only yesterday - yesterday - they'd pitched camp in the blue autumn dusk. Austin had made a joke, and his father was laughing. Then the Forest exploded. Ravens screamed. Pines cracked. And out of the dark beneath the trees surged a deeper darkness: a huge damaging menace in bear form.

Suddenly death was upon them. A frenzy of claws. A welter of sound to make the ears bleed. In a heartbeat, the creature had smashed their shelter to splinters. In a heartbeat, it had ripped a ragged wound in his father's side. Then it was gone, melting into the Forest as silently as mist.

But what kind of bear stalks men - then vanishes without making the kill? What kind of bear plays with it's prey?

And where was it now?

Austin couldn't see beyond the firelight, but he knew that the clearing, too, was a wreck of snapped saplings and trampled bracken. He smelt pine-blood and clawed earth. He heard the soft, sad bubbling of the stream thirty paces away. The bear could be anywhere.

Beside him his father moaned. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked at his son without recognition.

Austin's heart clenched. "It - It's me," he stammered. "How do you feel?"

Pain convulsed his father's lean brown face. His cheeks were tinged with grey, making his clan-tattoos stand out lividly. Sweat matted his long dark hair.

His wound was so deep that as Austin clumsily stanched it with beard-moss, he saw his father's guts glistening in the firelight. He had to grit his teeth to keep from retching. He hoped Fa **(father)** didn't notice - but of course he did. Fe was a hunter. He noticed everything.

"Austin . . . " he breathed. His hand reached out, his hot fingers clinging to Austin's as eagerly as a child. Austin swallowed. Sons clutch their fathers' hands; not the other way around.

He tried to be practical: to be a man instead of a boy. "I've still got some yarrow leaves," he said, fumbling for his medicine poach with his free hand. "Maybe that'll stop the - "

"Keep it. You're bleeding too."

"Doesn't hurt," lied Austin. The bee had thrown him against against a birch tree, bruising his ribs and hashing his left forearm.

"Austin - leave. Now. Before it comes back."

Austin stared at him. He opened his mouth but no sound came.

"You must," said his father.

"No. No. I can't - "

"Austin - I'm dying. I'll be dead by sunrise."

Austin gripped the medicine pouch. There was a roaring in his ears. "Fa - "

"Give me - what I need for the Death Journey. Then get your things."

The Death Journey. No. No.

But his father's face was stern. "My bow," he said. "Three arrows. You - keep the rest. Where I'm going - hunting's easy."

There was a tear in the knee of Austin's buckskin leggings. He dug his thumbnail into the flesh. It hurt. He forced himself to concentrate in that.

"Food," gasped his father. "The dried meat. You - take it all."

Austin's knee had started to bleed. He kept digging. He tried not to picture his father on the Death Journey. He tried not to picture himself alone in the Forest. He was only fifteen summers old **(15 years old)**. He couldn't survive on his own. He didn't know how.

"Austin! Move!"

Blinking furiously, Austin reached for his father's weapons and laid them by his side. He divided up the arrows, pricking his fingers on the sharp flint points. Then he shouldered his quiver and bow, scrabbled in the wreckage for his small black basalt axe. His hazelwood pack had been smashed in the attack; he'd have to cram everything else into his jerkin **(a sleeveless jacket)**, or tie it to his belt.

He reached for his reindeer-hide sleeping-sack.

"Take mine," murmured his father. "You never did - repair yours. And - swap knives."

Austin was aghast. "Not your knife! You'll need it!"

"You'll need it more. And - it'll be good to have something of yours on the Death Journey."

"Fa, please. Don't - "

In the Forest, a twig snapped.

Austin spun round.

The darkness was absolute. Everywhere he looked the shadows were bear-shaped.

No wind.

No birdsong.

Just the crackle of the fire and the thud of his heart. The Forest itself was holding it's breath.

His father licked the sweat from his lips. "It's not here yet," he said. "Soon. It will come for me soon . . . Quick. The knives."

Austin didn't want to swap knives. That would make it final. But his father was watching him with an intensity that allowed no refusal.

Clenching his jaw so hard that it hurt, Austin took his own knife and put it into Fa's hand. Then he untied the buckskin sheath from his father's belt. Fa's knife was beautiful and deadly, with a blade of banded blue slate shaped like a willow leaf, and a haft (handle) of red deer antler that was bound with elk sinew for a better grip. As Austin looked down at it, the truth hit him. He was getting ready for a life without Fa. "I'm not leaving you!" he cried. "I'll fight it, I - "

"No! No-one can fight this bear!"

Ravens flew up from the trees.

Austin forgot to breathe.

"Listen to me," hissed his father. "A bear - any bear - is the strongest hunter in the Forest. You know that. But this bear - much stronger."

Austin felt the hairs on his arms rise. Looking down into his father's eyes, he saw the tiny scarlet veins, and at the centres, the fathomless dark. "What do you mean?" he whispered. "What - "

"It is - possessed." His father's face was grim; he didn't seem like Fa any more. "Some - demon - from the Otherworld (similar to our idea of Hell) - has entered it and made it evil."

An ember spat. The dark trees leaned closer to listen.

"A demon?" said Austin.

His father shut his eyes, mustering his strength. "It lives only to kill," he said at last. "With each kill - it's power will grow. It will slaughter - everything. The prey. The clans. All will die. The Forest will die . . . " he broke off. "In one moon (a month) - it will be to late. The demon - too strong."

"One moon? But what - "

"Think, Austin! When the red eye***** is highest in the night sky, that's when demons are strongest. You know this. That's when the bear will be - invincible." He fought for breathe. In the firelight, Austin saw the pulse beating in his throat. So faint: as if it might stop at any moment. "I need you - to swear something," said Fa.

"Anything."

Fa swallowed. "Head north. Many daywalks. Find - the Mountain - of the World Spirit."

Austin stared at him. What?

His father's eyes opened, and he gazed into the branches overhead, as if he saw things there that no-one else could. "Find it," he said again. "It's the only hope. It's the only hope of destroying the bear."

"But - no-one's ever found it. No-one can."

"You can."

"How? I don't - "

"Your guide - will find you."

Austin was bewildered. Never before had his father talked like this. He was a practical man; a hunter. "I don't understand any of this!" he cried. "Why guide? Why must I find the Mountain? Will if be safe there? Is that it? Safe from the bear?"

Slowly, Fa's gaze left the sky and came to rest on his son's face. He looked as if he was wondering how much more Austin could take. "Ah, you're too young," he said. "I thought I had more time. So much I haven't told you. Don't - don't hate me for that later."

Austin looked at him in horror. Then he leapt to his feet. "I can't do this on my own. Shouldn't I try to find - "

"No!" said his father with startling force. "All your life I've kept you apart. Even - from my own Wolf clan. Stay away from men! If they find out - what you can do . . . "

"What do you mean? I don't - "

"No time," his father cut in. "Now swear. On my knife. Swear that you will find the Mountain, or die trying."

Austin but his lip hard. East through the trees, a grey light was growing. Not yet, he thought in panic. Please not yet.

"Swear," hissed his father.

Austin knelt and picked up the knife. If was heavy: a man's knife, too big for him. Awkwardly he touched it to the wound on his forearm. Then he put it to his shoulder, where the strip of wolf fur, his calm creature, was sewn to his jerkin. In an unsteady voice he took his oath. "I swear, by my blood on this blade, and by each of my three souls - that I will find the Mountain of the World Spirit. Or die trying."

His father breathed out. "Good. Good. Now. Put the Death Marks on me. Hurry. The bear - not far off."

Austin felt the salty sting of tears. Angrily he brushed them away. "I haven't got any ochre (earthy pigment)," he mumbled.

"Take - mine."

In a blur, Austin found the little antler-tine medicine horn that had been his mother's. In a blur, he yanked out the black oak stopper, and shook some of the red ochre into his palm.

Suddenly he stopped. "I can't."

"You can. For me."

Austin spat into his palm and made a sticky paste of the ochre, the dark-red of the earth, then he drew the small circles on his father's skin that would help the souls recognise each other and stay together after death.

First, as gently as he could, he removed his father's beaver-hide boots, and drew a circle on each heel to mark the name-soul. Then he drew another circle over the heart, to mark the clan-soul. This wasn't easy, as his father's chest was scarred from an old wound , so Austin only managed a lopsided oval. He hoped that would be good enough.

Last, he made the most important circle of all: a circle on the forehead to mark the Nanuak, the world-soul. By the time he'd finished he was swallowing tears.

"Better," murmured his father. But Austin saw with a clutch of terror that the pulse in his throat was fainter.

"You can't die!" Austin burst out.

His father gazed at him with pain and longing.

"Fa, I'm not leaving you, I - "

"Austin. You swore an oath." Again he closed his eyes. "Now. You - keep the medicine horn. I don't need it anymore. Take your things. Fetch me water from the river. Then - go."

I will not cry, Austin told himself as he rolled up his father's sleeping-sack and tied it across his back; jammed his axe into his belt; stuffed his medicine pouch into his jerkin.

He got to his feet and sat about the waterskin. It was ripped to shreds. He'd have to bring water in a dock leaf. He was about to go when his father murmured his name.

Austin turned. "Yes, Fa?"

"Remember. When you're hunting, look behind you. I - always tell you." He forced a smile. "You always - forget. Look behind you. Yes?"

Austin nodded. He tried to smile back. Then he blundered through the wet bracken towards the stream.

The light was growing, and the air smelt fresh and sweet. Around him the trees were bleeding: oozing golden pine-blood from slashes the bear had inflicted. Some of the tree spirits were moaning quietly in the dawn breeze.

Austin reached the stream, where mist floated above the bracken, and willows trailed their fingers in the cold water. Glancing quickly around, he snatched a dock leaf and moved forwards, his boots sinking into the soft red mud.

He froze.

Beside his right boot was the track of a bear. A front paw: twice the size of his own head, and so fresh that he could see the points where the long, vicious claws had bitten deep into the mud.

Look behind you, Austin.

He spun round.

Willows. Alder. Fir.

No bear.

A raven flew down onto the nearby bough, making him jump. The bird folded its stiff black wings and fixed him with a beady eye. Then it jerked its head, croaked once, and flew away.

Austin stared in the direction it had seemed to indicate.

Dark yew. Dripping spruce. Dense. Impenetrable.

But deep within - no more than ten paces away - a stir of branches. Something was in there. Something huge.

He tried to keep his panicky thoughts from skittering away, but his mind had gone white.

The thing about the bear, his father always said, is that it can move as silently as breath. It could be watching you from ten paces away, and you'd never know. Against a bee you have no defences. You can't run faster. You can't climb higher. You can't fight it on your own. All you can do it learn its ways, and try to persuade it that you're neither threat nor prey.

Austin forced himself to stay still. Don't run. Don't run. Maybe it doesn't know you're here.

A low hiss. Again the branches stirred.

He heard the stealthy rustle as the creature moved towards the shelter: towards his father. He waited in rigid silence as it passed. Coward! he shouted inside his head. You let it go without even trying to save Fa!

But what could he do? said the small part of his mind that could still think straight. Fa knew this would happen. That's why he sent you for water. He knew it was coming for him . . .

"Austin!" came his father's wild cry. "Run!"

Crow's burst from the trees. A roar shook the Forest - on and on till Austin's head was splitting.

"Fa!" he screamed.

"Run!"

Again the Forest shook. Again came his father's cry. Then suddenly it broke off.

Austin jammed his fist in his mouth.

Through the trees, he glimpsed a great dark shadow in the wreck of the shelter.

He turned and ran.

**Okay, so, what did you think? Are you interested? I'm afraid we don't meet Ally until a little later on, we have to meet Wolf first.**

***red eye - Don't worry too much about this for now. It has another name which we find out later. It is also explained later in the story and it has a link with the Underworld. Imagine it to look like a red star. If these people really did believe in this red eye in actual fact it was probably a planet.**

**Please, please, please, leave a review. Let me know what you think. Thank you so much.**

**Love you guys xxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness **

**In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T! **

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing and do not profit from anyone/anything you may recognise in this fic! This includes not only Austin and Ally but Michelle Pavers fabulous 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness.' This is simply to satisfy our Auslly obsessed minds!**

**Please also bare in mind that this is NOT my original work. This is the original copy of 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness,' only Torak and Renns characters have been converted to suit the characters: Austin and Ally. I will change the occasional scene to create more romance as the original focused more on the friendship and hinted romance much later on. I am a sucker for the Auslly romance so I'm afraid it had to be done. :D If you haven't read 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness' I'd recommend you do so as it is absolutely amazing. Seriously. **

**Wolf Brother**

**Chapter 2: Austin**

Austin crashed through alder thickets and sank to his knees in bogs. Birch trees whispered of his passing. Silently he begged them not to tell the bear.

The wound in his arm burned, and with each breath of his bruised ribs ached savagely, but he didn't dare stop. The Forest was full of eyes. He pictured the bear coming after him. He ran on.

He startled the young boar grubbing up pignuts, and grunted a quick apology to ward off an attack. The boar gave an ill-tempered snort and let him pass.

A wolverine snarled at him to stay away, and he snarled back as fiercely as he could, because wolverines only listen to threats. The wolverine decided he meant it, and shot up to a tree.

To the east, the sky was wolf grey. Thunder growled. In the stormy light, the trees a brilliant green. Rain in the mountains, thought Austin numbly. Watch out for flash floods.

He forced himself to think of that - to push away the horror. It didn't work. He ran on.

At last, he had to stop for breath. He collapsed against an oak tree. As he raised his head to stare at the shifting green leaves, the tree murmured secrets to itself, shutting him out.

For the first time in his life, he was truly alone. He didn't feel part of the Forest any more. He felt as if his world-soul had snapped its link to all other living things: tree and bird, hunter and prey, river and rock. Nothing in the whole world knew how he felt. Nothing wanted to know.

The pain in his arm wrenched him back from his thoughts. From his medicine pouch he took his last scrap of birch bast, and roughly bandaged the wound. Then he pushed himself off the tree trunk and looked around.

He'd grown up in this part of the Forest. Every slope, every glade was familiar. In the valley to the west was the Redwater: too shallow for canoes, but good fishing in spring, when the salmon come up from the Sea. To the east, all the way too the edge of the Deep Forest, lay the vast sunlit woods where the prey grow fat in autumn, and berries and nuts are plentiful. To the south were the moors where reindeer eat moss in winter.

Fa said the best thing about this part of the Forest was that so few people came here. Maybe the odd party of Willow Clan from the west by the Sea, or the Viper Clan up from the south, but they never stayed long. They simply passed through, hunting freely as everyone did in the Forest, and unaware that Austin and Fa hunted here too.

Austin had never questioned that before. It was how he'd always lived: alone with Fa, away from the clans. Now, though, he longed for people. He wanted to shout; to yell for help.

But Fa had warned him to stay away from them.

Besides, shouting might draw the bear.

The bear.

Panic rose in his throat. He pushed it down. He took a deep breath and started to run again, more steadily this time, heading north.

As he ran, he picked up signs of prey. Elk tracks. Auroch droppings. The sound of the forest horse moving through the bracken. The bear hadn't frightened them away. At least, not yet.

So had his father been wrong? Had his wits been wandering at the end?

"Your fathers mad!" The children had taunted Austin five summers before, when he and Fa had journeyed to the clan sea-shore for the clan meet. It was Austin's first ever clan meet, and it had been a disaster. Fa had never taken him again.

"They say he swallowed the breath of a ghost." The children had sneered. "That's why he left his clan and lives on his own."

Austin had been furious. He would've fought them all if his father hadn't come along and hauled him off. "Austin, ignore them." Fa had laughed. "They don't know what they're saying."

He'd been right, of course.

But was he right about the bear?

Up ahead, the trees opened into a clearing. Austin stumbled into the sun - and into a stench of rottenness.

He lurched to a halt.

The forest horse lay where the bear had tossed them like broken playthings. No scavenger had dared feed on them. Not even the flies would touch them.

They looked like no bear kill Austin had ever seen. When a normal bear feeds, it peels back the hide of it's prey and takes the innards and hind parts, then catches the rest for later. Like any other hunter, it wasted nothing. But this bear had ripped no more than a single bite from each carcass. It hadn't killed from hunger. It had killed for fun.

At Austin's feet lay a dead foal, its small hooves still crusted with river clay from it's final drink. His gorge rose. What kind of creature slaughters an entire herd? What kind of creature kills for pleasure?

He remembered the bear's eyes, glimpsed for one appalling heartbeat. He'd never seen such eyes. Behind them lay endless rage and a hatred of all living things. The hot, churning chaos of the Otherworld.

Of course his father was right. This wasn't a bear. It was a demon. It would kill and kill until the Forest was dead.

No-one can fight this bear, his father had said. Did that mean the Forest was doomed? And why did he, Austin, have to find the Mountain of the World Spirit? The Mountain that no-one had ever seen?

Your guide will find you, his father's voice echoed in his mind.

How? When?

Austin left the glade and plunged back into the shadows beneath the trees. Once again he began to run.

He ran for ever. He ran until he could no longer feel his legs. But at last he reached a long, wooded slope and had to stop: doubled up, chest heaving.

Suddenly he was ravenous. He fumbled for his food pouch - and groaned in disgust. It was empty. Too late, he remembered the neat bundles of dried deer meat, forgotten at the shelter.

Austin, you fool! Messing things up on your first day alone! Alone.

It wasn't possible. How could Fa be gone? Gone for ever?

Gradually he became aware of a faint mewing sound coming from the other side of the hill.

There it was again. Some young animal crying for it's mother.

His heart leapt. Oh, thank the Spirit! An easy kill. His belly tightened at the thought of fresh meat. He didn't care what it was. He was so hungry he could eat a bat.

Austin dropped to the ground and crept through the birch trees to the top of the hill.

He looked into the narrow gully through which ran a small, swift rive. He recognised it: the Fastwater. Further west, he and Fa often camped in summer to gather lime bark for rope-making; but this part looked unfamiliar. Then he realised why.

Some time before, a flash flood had come roaring down the mountains. The waters had since subsided, leaving a mass of wet undergrowth and grass strewn saplings. They'd **(referring to the water as human)** also destroyed a wild den on the other side of the gully. There, below a big red boulder shaped like a sleeping aurock, lay two drowned wolves like sodden fur cloaks. Three dead cubs floated in a puddle.

The fourth sat beside them, shivering.

The wolf cub looked about three months old. It was thin and wet, and was complaining softly to itself in a low, continuous whimper.

Austin flinched. Without warning, the sound had brought back a startling vision to his mind. Black fur. Warm darkness. Rich, fatty milk. The Mother licking him clean. The scratch of tiny claws and nudge of small, cold noses. Fluffy cubs clambering over him: the newest cub in the litter.

The vision was as vivid as a lightning flash. What did it mean?

His hand tightened on his father's knife. It doesn't matter what it means, he told himself. Visions won't keep you alive. If you don't eat that cub, you'll be too weak to hunt. And you're allowed to kill your clan-creature **(the animal that represents the clan you belong to)** to keep from starving. You know that.

The cub raised it's head and gave a bewildered yowl.

Austin listened to it - and understood it.

In some way that he couldn't begin to fathom, he recognised the high, wavering sounds. His mind knew their shapes. He remembered them.

This isn't possible, he thought.

He listened to the cub's yowls. He felt them drop into his mind.

_Why don't you play with me?_ The cub was asking its dead pack. _What have I done now? _

On and on it went. As Austin listened, something awakened in him. His neck muscles tensed. Deep in his throat he felt a response beginning. He fought the urge to put back his head and howl.

What was happening? He didn't feel like Austin any more. Not boy, not son, not member of the Wolf Clan - or not only those things. Some part of him was wolf.

A breeze sprang up, chilling his skin.

At the same moment, the wolf cub stopped yowling and jerked around to face him. It's eyes were unfocused, but its large ears were pricked, and it was snuffing the air. It had smelt him.

Austin looked down at the small anxious cub, and hardened his heart.

He drew his knife from his belt and started down the slope.

**And that's chapter two. Really hoping you're liking it so far. I do really love this story. Anywho, I thought of another relatable thing to help with the idea behind this story. If you've seen Brother Bear, then what the people of that time believed is much the same as in this. The plot in that film is entirely different but I don't know... Thought it might give some of you more of an idea. By the way, Brother Bear has got to be the most underrated Disney film of all time. **

**Moving on, thank you so so so much for every follow, favourite and review. You guys are truly awesome. Please keep up the amazing support as it really does inspire me.**

**If you have any questions, feel free to ask.**

**Love you guys xxxx**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness **

**In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T! **

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing and do not profit from anyone/anything you may recognise in this fic! This includes not only Austin and Ally but Michelle Pavers fabulous 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness.' This is simply to satisfy our Auslly obsessed minds!**

**Please also bare in mind that this is NOT my original work. This is the original copy of 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness,' only Torak and Renns characters have been converted to suit the characters: Austin and Ally. I will change the occasional scene to create more romance as the original focused more on the friendship and hinted romance much later on. I am a sucker for the Auslly romance so I'm afraid it had to be done. :D If you haven't read 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness' I'd recommend you do so as it is absolutely amazing. Seriously. **

**Wolf Brother**

**Chapter 3: Wolf**

The wolf cub did not at all understand what was going on. He'd been exploring the rise above the Den when the Fast Wet had come roaring through, and now his mother and father and pack-brothers were lying in the mud - and they were ignoring him.

Since long before the Light **(day)** he'd been nosing them and biting their tails - but they still didn't move. They didn't make a sound, and they smelt strange: like prey. Not the prey that runs away, but the Not-Breath **(dead)** kind: the kind that gets eaten.

The cub was cold, wet and very hungry. Many times he'd licked his mother's muzzle to ask her please to sick up some food for him to ear, but she didn't stir. What had he done wrong this time?

He knew that he was the naughtiest cub in the litter. He was always being scolded, but he couldn't help it. He just loved trying new things. So it seemed a bit unfair that now, when he was staying by the Den like a good cub, nobody even noticed.

He padded to the edge of the puddle where his pack-brothers lay, and lapped up some of the Still Wet **(source of water that doesn't move, like a lake or puddle)**. It tasted bad.

He ate some grass and a couple of spiders.

He wondered what to do next.

He began to feel scared. He put back his head an howled. Howling cheered him up a bit, because it reminded him of all the good howls he'd had with the pack.

Mid-howl, he stopped. He smelt wolf.

He spun round, wobbling a little from hunger. He swirled his ears and sniffed. Yes. Wolf. He could hear it coming noisily down the slope on the other side if the Fast Wet **(source of water that does moves, like a river)**. He smelt that it was male, half-grown, and not one of the pack.

But there was something odd about it. If smelt if wolf, but also of not-wolf. It smelt of reindeer and red deer and beaver, and fresh blood - something else: a new smell he hadn't yet learnt.

This was very odd. Unless - unless - it meant that the not-wolf wolf was actually a wolf who'd eaten lots of different pre, and was now bringing the cub some food!

Shivering with eagerness, the cub wagged his tail and yipped a noisy welcome.

For a moment the strange wolf stopped. Then it moved forwards again. The cub couldn't see it very clearly because his eyes weren't nearly as sharp as his nose and ears, but as it splashed across the Fast Wet, he made out that this was a very strange wolf indeed.

It walked on it's hind legs. The fur on it's head was fair. And strangest of all - it had no tail **(Wolf's perception of Austin - we will eventually find out more as to why Wolf is so convinced Austin himself is a wolf)**!

Yet it sounded wolf. It was making a low, friendly yip-and-yowl which sounded a bit like it's alright, I'm a friend. This was reassuring, even if it did keep missing out the highest yips.

But something was wrong. Beneath the friendliness there was a tense note. And although the strange wolf was smiling, the cub could tell it didn't really mean it.

The cub's welcome changed to a whimper. Are you hunting me? Why?

No, no, came the friendly but not-friendly yip-and-yowl.

Then the strange wolf stopped yip-and-yowling and advanced in a frightening silence.

Too weak to run, the cub backed away.

The strange wolf lunged, grabbed the cub by the scruff, and lifted him high.

Weakly the cub wagged his tail to fend off an attack.

The strange wolf lifted its forepaw and pressed a huge claw **(knife)** against the cub's belly.

The cub yelped. Grinning in terror, he whipped his tail between his legs.

But the strange wolf was frightened too. It's forepaws were shaking, and it was gulping and baring its teeth. The cub sensed loneliness and uncertainty and pain.

Suddenly, the strange wolf too another gulp, and jerked its great claw away from the cub's belly. Then it sat down heavily in the mud, and clutched the cub to its chest.

The cub's terror vanished. Though the strange furless hide that smelt more of not-wolf than wolf, he could hear a comforting thump-thump, like the sound he heard when he clambered on top of his father for a nap.

The cub wriggled out of the strange wolf's grip, put his forepaws on its chest, and stood on his hind legs. He began to lick the strange wolf's muzzle.

Angrily, the strange wolf pushed him away, and he fell backwards. Undeterred, he righted himself and sat gazing up at the strange wolf.

Such an odd, flat furless face! The lips weren't black, like a proper wolf's, but pale; and the ears were pale too - and they didn't move at all. But the eyes were silver-grey **(sorry had to change Austin's eye colour, doesn't really work otherwise)** and full of light: the eyes of a wolf.

The cub felt better than he had since the Fest Wet had come. He'd found a new pack-brother.

**Chapter 3: Austin**

Austin was furious with himself. Why hadn't he killed the cub? Now what was he going to eat?

The cub jabbed his nose into his bruised ribs, making him yelp. "Get off!" He shouted, kicking it away. "I don't want you! Understand? You're no use! Go away!"

He didn't even attempt that in wolf talk, because he'd realised he didn't actually speak it very well. He only knew the simpler gestures and some of the sound-shapes. But the cub picked up his meaning well enough. It trotted off a few paces, then sat down and looked at him hopefully, sweeping the ground with its tail.

Austin got to his feet - and the world tilted sickeningly. He had to eat soon.

He cast around the riverbank for food, but saw only the dad wolves, and thy smelt too bad to even think about. Hopelessness washed over him. The sun was getting low. What should he do? Camp here? But what about the bear? Had it finished with Fa, and come after him?

Something twisted painfully in his chest. Don't think about Fa. Think what to do. If the bear had followed you, it would have got you by now. So maybe you'll be safe here - at least for tonight.

The wolf carcasses were too heavy to drag away, so he decided to camp further upstream. First, though, he would use one of the carcasses to bait a deadfall **(a trap consisting of a heavy weight positioned to fall on an animal)**, in the hope of trapping something to eat overnight.

It was a struggle to set up the trap: to prop up a flat rock on a stick, the slot in another stick crossways to act as a trigger. If he was lucky, a fox might come along in the night and bring down the rock. It wouldn't make good eating, but it'd be better than nothing.

He's just finished when the cub trotted over and gave the deadfall an inquisitive sniff. Austin grasped its muzzle and slammed it to the ground. "No!" He said firmly. "You stay away."

The cub shook himself and retired with an offended air.

Better offended than dead, thought Austin.

He knew he'd been unfair: he should've growled first to warn the cub to stay away, and only muzzle-grabbed if it hadn't listened. But he was too tired to worry about that.

Besides, why had he bothered to warn it at all? What did he care if it wobbled along in the night and got squashed? What did he care if he could understand it, or why? What use was that?

He stood up, and his knees nearly gave way. Forget about the cub. Find something to eat.

He forced himself to climb the slope behind the big red rock to look for cloudberries. Only when he got there did he remember that cloudberries grow on moors and marshes, not in birchwoods, and that it was too late in the year for them anyway.

He noticed that in certain spots the ground was littered with woodgrouse droppings, so he set some snares of twisted grass: two near the ground, and two on the sort of low branch that woodgrouse sometimes run along - taking care to hide the snares with leaves so that the woodgrouse wouldn't spot them. Then he went back to the river.

He knew he was too unsteady to try spearing a fish, so instead he set up a line of bramble-thorn fishing-hooks baited with water snails. Then he started up the river to look for berries and roots.

For a while the cub followed him; then it sat down and mewed at him to come back. It didn't want to leave its pack.

Good, thought Austin. You stay there. I don't want you pestering me.

As he searched, the sun sank lower. The air grew sharp. His jerkin glistened with the misty breath of the Forest. He had a hazy thought that he should be building a shelter instead of looking for food, but he pushed it away.

At last he found a handful of crowberries, and gulped them down. Then some late lingonberries; a couple of snails; a clutch of yellow bog-mushrooms - a bit maggoty but not too bad.

It was nearly dusk when he got lucky and found a clump of pignuts. With a sharp stick he dug down carefully, following the winding stems to the small, knobbly root. He chewed the first one: it tasted sweet and nutty, but was barely a mouthful. After much exhausting digging, he grubbed up four more, ate two, and stuffed two in his jerkin for later.

With food inside him, a little strength returned to his limbs, but his mind was still strangely unclear. What do I do next? He wondered. Why is it so hard to think?

Shelter. That's it. Then fire. Then sleep.

The cub was waiting for him in the clearing. Shivering and yipping with delight, it threw itself at him with a big wolf smile. It didn't just wrinkle its muzzle and draw back its lips; it smiled with its whole body. It slicked back its ears and tilted its head to the side; waved its tail and waggled its forepaws, and made great twisting leaps in the air.

Watching it made Austin giddy, so he ignored it. Besides, he needed to build a shelter.

He looked around a deadwood, but the flood had washed most of it away. He'd have to cut down some saplings; if he still had the strength.

Pulling his axe from his belt, he went over to a clump of birch and put his hand on the smallest. He muttered a quick warning to the tree's spirit to find another home fast, then started to chop.

The effort made his head swim. The cut on his forearm throbbed savagely. He forced himself to keep chopping.

He was in an endless dark tunnel of chopping and stripping branches and more chopping. But when his arms had turned to water and he could chop no more, he saw with alarm that he'd only managed to cut down to spindly birch saplings and a puny little spruce.

They'd have to do.

He lashes the saplings together with a slope spruce root to make a low, rickety lean-to **(a type of shelter)**; the he covered it on three sides with spruce boughs, and dragged in a few more to lie on.

It was pretty hopeless, but it'd have to do. He didn't have the strength to rainproof it with leafmould. If it rained, he'd have to trust his sleeping-sack to keep him dry, and pray that the river spirit didn't send another flood, because he'd built too close to the water.

Munching another pignut, he scanned the clearing for firewood. But he'd only just swallowed the pignut when his belly heaved, and he spewed it up again.

The cub yipped with delight and gulped down the sick.

Why did I do that? thought Austin. Did I eat a bad mushroom?

But it didn't feel like a bad mushroom. It felt like something else. He was sweating and shivering, and although there was nothing left in his belly to throw up, he still felt sick.

A horrible suspicion gripped him. He unwound the bandage on his forearm - and fear settled on him like an ice fog. The wound was a swollen, angry red. It smelt bad. He could feel the heat coming off it. When he touched it, pain flared.

A sob rose in his chest. He was exhausted, hungry and frightened, and he desperately wanted Fa. And now he had a new enemy.

Fever.

**Dun. Dun. Dun. What's gonna happen to Austin, all alone and severely ill? I guess you'll have to wait and find out next time. **

**Okay, just to clear up some confusion of this chapter. At the beginning we were in Wolf POV. So bare that in mind and the creature he thought was a wolf but wasn't sure of is Austin. I hope that came across clearly enough. Also at the end, the reason he has fever is because his cut is infected. A fever in this situation could possibly be deadly that's why it's dramatic.**

**Anyway, I want to thank you all, silent readers, reviewers, favourites and followers. You are all incredibly, incredibly amazing. I really hope this book continues to spark people's interest and I'm so pleased people seem to be curious so far. **

**Please continue with me. And please continue to show me your support by reviewing favouriting and following. I always get this little smile on my face when I can see the proof that someone has shared and offered their support.**

**Love you guys xxxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness **

**In WOLF BROTHER, Austin learns of the destiny he can never escape, and the adventure begins. Auslly-ness galore! I promise, cross my heart hope to die! Strong T! **

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing and do not profit from anyone/anything you may recognise in this fic! This includes not only Austin and Ally but Michelle Pavers fabulous 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness.' This is simply to satisfy our Auslly obsessed minds!**

**Please also bare in mind that this is NOT my original work. This is the original copy of 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness,' only Torak and Renns characters have been converted to suit the characters: Austin and Ally. I will change the occasional scene to create more romance as the original focused more on the friendship and hinted romance much later on. I am a sucker for the Auslly romance so I'm afraid it had to be done. :D If you haven't read 'The Chronicles Of Ancient Darkness' I'd recommend you do so as it is absolutely amazing. Seriously. **

**Wolf Brother**

**Chapter 4: Austin**

Austin had to make a fire. It was a race between him and the fever. The prize was his life.

He fumbled at his belt for his tinder pouch. His hands shook as he took out some wisps of shredded birch bark, and he kept dropping his flint and missing his strike-fire. He was snarling with frustration when he finally got a spark to take.

By the time he had a fire going, he was shivering uncontrollably, and hardly felt the heat of the flames. Noises boomed unnaturally loud: the gurgle of the river, the hoo-hoo of an owl; the famished yipping of that irritating cub. Why couldn't it leave him alone?

He staggered to the river for water. Just in time, he remembered what Fa said about not leaning over too far. When you're ill, never catch sight of your name-soul (Can't say I remember for certain what this is again, just know it's not an actual thing, it's either just himself or it's the tattoo on his forehead but I'm pretty sure those are his clan-marks. anyway, don't worry about it) in the water. Seeing it makes you dizzy. You might fall in and drown.

With his eyes shut, he drank his fill, then stumbled back to the shelter. He longed for rest, but he knew that he had to see to his arm, or he wouldn't stand a chance.

He took some dried willow bark from his medicine pouch and chewed it, gagging on its gritty bitterness. He smeared the paste on his forearm, then bound up the wound again with the birch-bast bandage. The pain was so bad that he nearly passed out. It was all he could do to kick off his boots and crawl into his sleeping-sack. The cub tried to clamber in too. He pushed it away.

Dully, teeth chattering, he watched the cub pad over to the fire and study it curiously. It extended one large grey paw and patted the flames - then leapt back with an outraged yelp.

"That'll teach you." Muttered Austin.

The cub shook itself and bounded off into the gloom.

Austin curled into a little ball, cradling his throbbing arm and thinking bitterly what a mess he'd made of things.

All his life he'd lived in the Forest with Fa, pitching camp for a night or two, then moving on. He knew the rules. Never skimp on your shelter. Never use more effort than you need when gathering food. Never leave it too late to pitch camp.

His first day on his own, and he'd broken every one. It was frightening. Like forgetting how to walk.

With his good hand he touched his clan-tattoos, tracing the pair of fine dotted lines that followed each cheekbone. Fa had given them to him when he was seven, rubbing bearberry juice into the pierced skin. You don't deserve them, Austin told himself. If you die, it'll be your own fault.

Again the grief twisted in his chest. Never in his life had he slept alone. Never without Fa. For the first time, there was no goodnight touch of the rough, gentle hand. No familiar smell of buckskin and sweat.

Austin's eyes began to sting. He screwed them shut, and slid down into astonishing dreams of both evil and beautiful proportions.

He is wading knee-deep in moss, struggling to escape the bear and trying to reach her. The most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes upon. Entrancing him entirely like a serpents sinful sway.

His father's screams ring in his ears. The bear is coming from him.

He implores his feet to run, but this captivating creature strikes him incompetent.

He's sinker deeper into the moss. It sucks him down. His father is screaming. He's reaching, desperate, for her.

The bear's eyes burn with the lethal fire of the Otherworld - the Demon fire. It rears on it's hind legs: a towering menace, unimaginably huge. It's great jaws gape as it roars its hatred to the moon . . .

Austin woke with a cry.

The last of the bear's roars were echoing through the Forest. They weren't a dream. They were real.

Austin held his breath. He saw the blue moonlight through the gaps in his shelter. He saw that the fire was nearly out. He felt his heart pounding.

Again the Forest shook. The trees tensed to listen. But this time Austin realised the roars were far away: many daywalks to the west. Slowly he breathed out.

At the mouth of the shelter, the cub sat watching him. Its slanted eyes were a strange, dark gold. Amber, thought Austin, remembering the little deal amulet (piece of jewellery that supposedly protects you from diseases) that Fa had worn on a thing around his neck.

He found that oddly reassuring. At least he wasn't alone.

He found that oddly reassuring. At least he wasn't alone.

As his heartbeats returned to normal, the pain of his fever came surging back. It crisped his skin. His skull felt ready to burst. He struggled to get more willow bark from his medicine pouch, but dropped it, and couldn't find it again in the half-darkness. He dragged another branch onto the fire, then lay back, grasping.

He couldn't get the girl who invaded his dream out of his head. Who was she? Was she the guide his father spoke of?

Shaking his head, he decided that thoughts of this girl were useless for the time being. His main focus was the bear and it's current location. The glade of dead horses had been north of the stream where it had attacked Fa, but now the bear seemed to be in the west. Would it keep heading west? Or had it caught Austin's scent, and turned back? How long before it got here, and found him lying helpless and sick? A calm steady voice seemed to whisper in his mind: almost as if Fa were with him. If the bear does come, the cub will warn you. Remember, Austin: a wolf's nose is so keen a that he can smell the breath of a fish. His ears are so sharp that he can hear the clouds pass.

Yes, thought Austin, the cub will warn me. That's something. I want to die with my eyes open, facing the bear like a man. Like Fa.

Somewhere far off, a dog barked. Not a wolf, but a dog.

Austin frowned. Dogs meant people, and there were no people in this part of the Forest.

Were there?

He sank into darkness. Back into the clutches of the bear.

**The plot is definitely thickening I reckon. I hope you guys are finding yourself more immersed with the story as it continues. I absolutely loved it. It's so enthralling. **

**Anyway, the girl in the dream if you hadn't realised is Ally. Although this never happened in the book. I just wanted to create more of a sense that Ally is just as important to Austin's life. **

**Ah! Yay! 4 reviews for the last chapter. I can't tell you how much they mean to me. Truly. I love them and you all. Please continue. You guys are my inspiration, so let me know what you think.**

**Love you guys xxxx**


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